About the Office of Laboratory Security

The Office of Laboratory Security (OLS) was established within the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPR) as a result of the Health Canada realignment process.

Canada's national centre of expertise for biosafety and biocontainment, namely the Office of Biosafety (OBS), was amalgamated into the new Office of Laboratory Security from the Laboratory Centre for Disease Control (LCDC) in June 2000.

The OBS was established within Health Canada in 1980 and it's mission is to ensure effective, evidence-based biosafety interventions on a national basis through regulatory control, surveillance, applied research, and timely dissemination of information related to needs, priorities and strategies. At the time of amalgamation, the OBS was accountable for:

• controlling the importation and use of human pathogens
• providing biocontainment and biosafety standards and guidelines - nationally
• overseeing the biosafety of LCDC's laboratories
• disseminating timely biosafety information

The responsibilities for the safety program of Health Canada's laboratories was transferred to the OLS in November 2000. Health Canada's laboratories consist of a network of 10 laboratory sites across the country. These laboratories provide specialized laboratory testing and research for the delivery of Health Canada's programs.

Strengthening its ability to protect the health and safety of Canadians, the Government of Canada has delivered on its commitment to establish a new Public Health Agency of Canada and appoint a Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones. The creation of the Public Health Agency of Canada marks the beginning of a new approach to federal leadership and collaboration with provinces and territories on public health and responds to a consensus from the provinces, public health experts and concerned citizens on the need for federal leadership on public health to be consolidated in a public agency. As a result of the creation of the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Office of Laboratory Security is now part of this new agency.

National biosafety policies and guidelines

The Laboratory Biosafety Guidelines is a technical document developed for those who design, operate or work in laboratories in which human pathogens are manipulated for diagnostic, research or development purposes.

These laboratories may be located in universities, hospitals, government departments or industrial settings.

The Guidelines are available from the Office of Laboratory Security, Biosafety Division and covers the following topics:

• safety practices in the containment of biohazards
• regulations governing the importation and transportation of human pathogens
• risk classification of biological agents
• physical and operational containment levels according to classification of risk
• special considerations for large-scale production of microorganisms
• laboratory design
• safety equipment and biological safety cabinets

Consultative services

The Office of Laboratory Security can provide advice to microbiological laboratories on the requirements outlined in the Laboratory Biosafety Guidelines, for instance

• planning of laboratories from start-up to certification
• dealing with problems in safety or design
• Dselection, installation and use of biological safety cabinets

Resource centre

As a resource centre the Office of Laboratory Security offers the following services:

• training courses in biosafety
• material safety data sheets (as quick safety reference material relating to infectious microorganisms for personnel working in the life sciences)
• free loan service for approximately 60 biosafety videos
• bibliographic database consisting of close to 6,000 references on aspects of biosafety, updated regularly
• quarterly biosafety listings - a bibliography of recently published literature relating to biosafety issues, published every 3 months